With three “double headers” in five weeks, the 2021 Formula E season starts its final phase on this Saturday and Sunday with the New York City E-Prix. Season races 10 and 11 are on the schedule at the “Red Hook” ferry terminal in the borough of Brooklyn. In the current issue of our series “Paddock Whispers”, you can find out what else occupies the paddock apart from the big sporting topics in “The Big Apple”.
The side stories from Formula E Friday in New York City
>>> On Wednesday, Formula E organized a “show run” in Times Square in New York. TAG Heuer placed a large-scale advertisement on the 110-meter-high “One Times Square” office building for the photo opportunity, before advertising shots were filmed with the moving Gen2 show car accompanied by the police.
>>> Envision Virgin Racing used the “media day” for a shoot with players from the American football team of the New York Giants. Nick Cassidy presented his Formula E car in front of MetLife Stadium before swapping two of his overalls for jerseys from quarterback Daniel Jones and wide receiver Kenny Golladay.
>>> The tropical storm “Elsa” led to heavy rains in New York City on Thursday. Floods occurred in several subway stations and some streets were impassable. The structure of the Formula E circuit was also affected. For the race on Saturday dry weather is predicted, however, on Sunday the probability of rain is 46 percent (as of Saturday, 2:45 a.m. local time). Our on-site reporter Timo Pape reports: “When we landed, it was just starting. In the meantime, the accreditation body and the PCR test center were even closed for fear of a lightning strike. However, the storm warning on the smartphone only came on when we arrived at the hotel soaking wet. “
>>> After several new racing locations were allowed to move into the Formula E racing calendar in the coming 2021/22 season, other cities are trying to race in season 9, the first year of the Gen3 era. As we have already reported, the electric series is holding talks with possible venues in Japan and Brazil, among others. A second E-Prix in the USA is also high on Formula E’s wish list. According to ‘The Race’, possible candidates are San Francisco, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Houston. The latter metropolis in Texas is said to have the best chances at the moment. “We’re actively talking to more than five cities in the United States, and some of them look really promising,” said Formula E co-founder Alberto Longo.
>>> Although the Paris E-Prix is not on the racing calendar for the 2022 season, the event should be part of the Formula E “travel plan” in the long term. From 2023, an E-Prix will be held in the French capital every odd year, Longo confirmed at a press conference on Friday. The only free “TBC” slot in the calendar for the 2022 season could possibly be Eindhoven (Netherlands) or Jakarta (Indonesia).
>>> Audi has introduced Harry Tincknell as the new official reserve driver. The 29-year-old Brit is currently contesting the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship for Mazda, but has already tested for Jaguar and Nio in the past. His greatest successes in motorsport were two class wins at the 24 Hours of Le Mans: 2014 for Jota in the LMP2 (together with Oliver Turvey among others) and in 2020 with Aston Martin in the LMGTE Pro (together with Alex Lynn).
Welcoming @HarryTincknell to Audi Sport ABT Schaeffler as our new official reserve driver in @FIAFormulaE.
>> https://t.co/ktQ0jleme7#FutureIsAnAttitude #ABBFormulaE #FormulaE #NYCEPrix #etron #ChangeAccelerated pic.twitter.com/M8YUmqSRjt
– Audi Sport (@audisport) July 8, 2021
>>> Jaguar also presented a “third reserve driver” in New York – though probably not meant very seriously. On Friday, multiple ski world and Olympic champion Lindsey Vonn posed in Mitch Evans’ racing suit in front of the Jaguar garage and took part in a pit stop training session. The American is a VIP guest on the team this weekend.
>>> In the past few months, the Tempelhof Airport building has been used as a vaccination center. However, the Berlin health administration is now planning to close the center on July 20. Immediately afterwards, the construction of the Formula E track will begin on the apron so that the course will be on time for the Berlin E-Prix on 14/15. August stands.
>>> After advertising banners detached from the walls in Puebla prevented several drivers from achieving a better race result, Formula E in New York is testing a new “wrapping technique”. Instead of sticking a long banner on several concrete walls, according to ‘The Race’ from now on, the series will cover each concrete block individually.
>>> In addition to the newly placed attack zone, there is only one other change to the route: the start-finish line has been moved 42 meters forward. This means that the approach to the first corner after the start and the first sector are slightly longer than when the race was last held in 2019.
A direct comparison of the #NYCEPrix circuit layouts 2019 & 2021 shows, in addition to the new #AttackZone, that the start/finish line has been moved by 4⃣2⃣ metres. Otherwise there are no changes. #ABBFormulaE pic.twitter.com/VfZ2RZnoZ9
– Tobias Wirtz (@tobiw_apex) July 9, 2021
>>> According to Formula E, around 150 million viewers worldwide watched the electric series races on television in the first half of the season. The series is therefore only on track to generate audience ratings similar to that in 2017 and 2018. Compared to the previous season, the audience has grown by 125% in key markets.
>>> Due to technical difficulties, the biometric gloves that drivers have had to wear since the 2018/19 season will not be used at the New York City E-Prix. The teams were allowed to remove the signal carriers placed in the vehicles for this purpose.
>>> Bad start to the weekend for Nick Cassidy: The New Zealander fell by the wayside in the shakedown with his Virgin. Race director Scot Elkins then canceled the session with the red flag. The session was not restarted, so that several drivers, including Maximilian Günther (BMW), could not even go out on the track.
>>> Not only in New York City (Formula E) and Aragon (Pure ETCR) there is electric motorsport this weekend. The hydrogen-powered “MissionH24” prototype makes its debut at the “Festival of Speed” in Goodwood, UK.
>>> Speaking of other E-series: The electric powerboat series E1 Series was looking for a location for a race in Marstrand, Sweden last week.
Additional reporting by Tobias Bluhm and Timo Pape.
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